Mathis de Beaulieu supplemented the restrained decorative scheme by adding oval cartouches with chased images of flowers and insects, made of multicolored gold, to the lid and the base. Although the elegance of design and fineness of execution of this snuffbox correspond to the high quality of items sold by Charles Raymond Granchez in his shop Au Petit Dunkerque on Quai de Conti in Paris, the inscription engraved on the rim indicating this origin is misleading, as it was added later. During the period of the snuffbox's manufacture, merchants' inscriptions were usually executed rather in italics with capital and lowercase letters, instead of sans-serif capital letters, as in this case. Advertising his shop, Granchez sometimes mentioned members of the royal family who purchased certain items from him, seeking to give all his goods an aura of prestige and appeal. The very name of the shop became synonymous with luxury. In 1787, Louis-Sébastien Mercier mentioned this skillfully created allure: “Can one not, showing a snuffbox, say: 'It is from Petit-Dunkerque'?” Even long after the shop closed, the associations with refined luxury persisted.

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